


Nuts and Bolts

by mithrel



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Derek and Stiles are Neighbors, IKEA Furniture, M/M, Pre-Slash, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-06
Updated: 2016-01-06
Packaged: 2018-05-12 07:16:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5657467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mithrel/pseuds/mithrel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Derek’s going to kill his neighbor.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nuts and Bolts

**Author's Note:**

  * For [zjofierose](https://archiveofourown.org/users/zjofierose/gifts).



> Written for zjofierose at the Sterek Secret Santa Exchange.

_**CRASH!!! BANG!!!**_ “MOTHERFUCKER!”

Derek rolls over and puts the pillow over his head, only to groan and throw it across the room as the sound of glass breaking and a litany of “SHITSHITSHIT!” comes from next door.

He squints at the clock on his bedside table. 1:47 A.M. Because of fucking _course_ his new neighbor waits until bedtime to start putting his bed together.

Or…trying to, anyway.

He’d stumbled in just after 11:00 from his job at the garage and flopped straight into bed, assuming he’d be out like a light in two minutes.

No such luck.

Since his crappy apartment has thin walls and he’s been lying awake for the last three hours listening to his neighbor curse IKEA, Sweden, beds, the person who _invented_ beds, and from the sound of it, every single tool in his toolbox. The guy’s getting positively Biblical in his threats.

Derek growls, gets up, drags on his jeans, and pads barefoot to the apartment next door.

He has to knock four times to be heard over the racket.

Derek’s rendered momentarily speechless by the guy who answers the door, sweating, hair askew and absolutely _gorgeous_.

His neighbor’s not speechless, though. As soon as he sees Derek, his eyes widen. “Ohmygod, was I keeping you up? Of course I was keeping you up,” he continues before Derek can get a word in, “I’m sorry, it’s just–“

“You can’t put your bed together,” Derek cuts him off.

“Wh-…How did you…oh,” his neighbor says, going beet red. “Guess I was making a lot of noise, huh?”

 _More noise than living next to a bus station,_ Derek thinks, but the guy’s cute, so he shrugs. “Look, I’ve got work in the morning at seven, so…”

“Rightright!” his neighbor blurts out. “Sorry, I’ll just sleep on the floor.”

Derek cranes past him, at the mess of parts, tools, and miscellaneous junk scattered around the room. His neighbor looks over his shoulder and winces.

Derek pinches the bridge of his nose and sighs. “I’ll help you put it together.”

His neighbor’s eyebrows shoot up. “What? Oh, dude, you don’t have to do that!”

“Forget it. But don’t call me ‘dude.’”

“Well there’s not much else I can call you, considering I don’t know your name.”

“Derek,” he says gruffly, sticking out a hand and his neighbor shakes it.

“Stiles.”

Derek blinks. “What?”

“Stiles. My name.”

“That _can’t_ be your real name!”

“Well, no, but it’s a hell of a lot easier to pronounce. Unless you’re Polish,” he adds as an afterthought, and Derek shakes his head.

Stiles steps aside and Derek picks his way into the room, sidestepping a pile of broken glass next to a side table.

“OK, first things first, do you have the instructions?”

“Here,” Stiles says morosely, handing him a folded piece of paper. Derek unfolds it partway and squints at the diagrams.

“Hm, it looks like this–“ he points to the headboard “–goes into…that,” a moment of searching finds the top of the frame.

Derek heaves up the headboard and puts it in place. “…Screws. Where are the screws?”

Stiles shrugs helplessly, and he and Derek spend the next five minutes crawling around on the floor looking for them. Derek can’t help but notice that Stiles has a really nice ass.

They pile all the small parts in the center of the room, and Derek screws the two parts together. “How did all this stuff get out here anyway? Weren’t you putting it together in your bedroom?”

“Well, yeah, but there was so much stuff, and it just kinda…migrated,” Stiles says lamely.

“You get all the small stuff,” Derek says, and picks up the headboard under his arm. “Uh…where’s your bedroom?”

Stiles points wordlessly down the hall.

The bedroom is filled with boxes, with a large clear space on the floor. Derek dumps the headboard and Stiles puts the nuts and bolts on top of a box and goes out for one of the sides.

After they get it all into the room it’s just following the instructions. They unfold the paper on the floor and Derek gets two sides of the frame attached, then scratches his head. “Can you make any sense of this?” he asks Stiles, pointing to the diagram showing how the bottom of the frame connects.

Stiles snorts at him. “What do you think?”

“Right, right.” He squints at the paper for a moment, moving his hands back and forth, before he gets it straight. “Alright, put the bolt down and screw it in, but take the bolt off afterwards.” 

Stiles picks up the screw, but leaves the bolt on the floor.

“No, like this.” Before he’s thought about it, Derek’s picked up the bolt and slid it into place, his fingers brushing Stiles’, Stiles’ back flush against his chest.

Stiles’ breath hitches, but he manages, “Now what?”

“Screw it in until it hits the bolt, then take the bolt out. It needs to be sticking out so we can lock it into the sides.”

Stiles does so, Derek feeling his every movement. He swallows, glad Stiles can’t see.

Derek pulls away from him, with regret, and they lock the bottom of the frame in place.

“OK, now there should be an S-shaped…thing,” Derek finishes lamely, not sure how to describe it.

“A ‘thing,’” Stiles repeats, putting air-quotes around the word. “Really helpful there, big guy.”

“Just…just look in the pile,” Derek growls, and Stiles smirks at him.

After a moment he picks up an S-shaped piece of metal. “This thing?”

Derek nods. Rather than trying to explain it to Stiles, Derek takes it and tightens the screws at each of the corners, reaching through the holes in the sides.

In the meantime, Stiles has picked up an extendable piece of metal and is pulling it in and out.

“Extend that all the way and put it in the notch in the middle of the bed,” Derek tells him.

Stiles nods and bends over to do it, giving Derek another view of his ass. If he didn’t know better, Derek would swear he was doing it on purpose.

More screws go at the corners, and at the ends of the rod in the middle, and they’re finally done.

As they stand there looking at the finished product, Derek can’t help sneaking glances at Stiles. He looks wearily exultant.

“Thanks, man.”

“Hm? It was no trouble.”

“Don’t lie,” Stiles says. “I kept you up late with my swearing and instead of just banging on the wall and telling me to shut the hell up, you came over and helped me.”

Derek shrugs. “Seemed like the thing to do.”

“Can I at least pay you back? I-I mean,” Stiles continues as Derek shoots a quizzical look at him, “Maybe we could go out for coffee or something sometime?”

“Just to be clear,” Derek says carefully, “Is this a friends-and-neighbors coffee or a possibly-more-than-friends coffee?”

Stiles’ blush is answer enough

Derek feels a slow grin spread over his face. “Sure. And maybe afterwards you can take me home and show me your new bed.”


End file.
